I have always tried to use music in the classroom, because I really want students to experience the joy that music can bring, regardless of a language barrier. However, I have never really figured out a seamless way to integrate it into the daily flow of my classes. Additionally, my students have never seemed to share my enthusiasm for music in the classroom. With all that, I decided that this was the year I was going to take the month of March and do a March Madness bracket with my classes. If you are unfamiliar with March Madness, check out the spanishplans.org website found here. During March, we listened to two song refrains each day and voted as to which was the class favorite. During this time, the students did not seem overly engaged or enthusiastic, and honestly, I was again wondering why I bothered to incorporate music as it seemed like it was a waste of time when I could be using those precious minutes in a more effective manner. This was essentially true for the entire month of March. I was introducing music and the students were (very) passively tolerating it. In the end, the students did liven up a little bit, but nothing to the level that I would consider the payoff worth the time spent doing the activity.
OK, time to assess. Was the class time I was using beneficial, or could I use the classroom to provide more comprehensible input? I really did not want to give up on music this time, and I know from experience that not everything is initially successful in the classroom. I decided to try a song of the month, similar to what Annabelle Allen does in her classroom. Kara Jacobs and others use a song of the week, but I was not ready to commit to that level of involvement. I chose to use the song, Sofía by Álvaro Soler. I knew it was a catchy tune, and as a bonus, Carrie Toth and Martina Bex had already created materials to use with the song. Bonus for me, I had no “wheel” to create. In Spanish II, we did a couple of the activities, and listened to the song. Again, with passive results from my students. I was so discouraged, I was ready to quit the whole music thing all together. Apparently, music is something others can get to be successful in their classrooms, but for me, it just didn’t seem to be working out. After two hours of brooding about my lack of success, one of my Spanish III students came into my classroom and asked what song I had played earlier in the day for my Spanish II class. Apparently one of her friends told her that she listened to the BEST SONG EVER in class today and wanted it added to their softball playlist. Wait...what? Then, another Spanish III student came into class and asked a similar question. Wait...what? Apparently my Spanish II students were creating a buzz about Sofía. Finally, results I had been hoping for - students actually enjoying music in Spanish. However, the story gets even better, remember the part about a softball playlist? Unbeknownst to me, our softball team has a playlist that they listen to as a pre-game warm up for home events. The previously mentioned Spanish II student wanted Sofía added to the playlist, however, wasn’t sure if they should add the song or not because they already had TWO Spanish-language songs on their playlist. Wait..what? Yep, already on their playlist were two songs that we had listened to during March Madness. Again, I guess all that passive listening that I saw on my end, really was much more than that. I am happy to say that the softball pre-game playlist now has THREE Spanish-language songs on it. But wait, there’s more. Since the playlist incident, I have come to learn that a number of students have songs from March Madness on their personal playlists! (YEAH!) Another student shared that he was eating in a Mexican restaurant when Esperándote (a March Madness song) came on over the speaker. He recognized the song, and started singing along! In front of everybody in the restaurant, including his mother. (YEAH!) So, lesson learned. Our students truly are icebergs. We see them in class for such a short amount of time, but beneath those glazed eyes and sluggish composure, they really are listening. More than I knew, at least. As such, music will henceforth be a staple in my classroom.
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Jessie Oelke
#deptofone providing compelling and comprehensible input Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
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